Corean Chronicles 3 - Scepters

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  Chapter 48

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  For another week—ten long days—Alucius and the three companies rode, almost due west for the first five days. The next five days, they rode south on the eternastone road that ran from Tempre in the north to Hyalt in the south. The night after heading south, Alucius had once more dreamed about the chamber with the walls closing in, and again he woke up sweating. Clearly he felt hemmed in, but there was little enough he could do besides being aware and doing his best.

  On Quattri, just as the sun had almost reached its zenith, Alucius realized what had been nagging at him for the past few glasses. They had seen no one heading north the entire morning. Not a soul. While the road was supposedly less traveled than many others, it was part of the trading "square" of high roads that linked the five major cities in western Lanachrona.

  On either side of the high road was a vingt or so of low scrub brush, little of it over knee-high. Each bush or plant was surrounded by an empty area of reddish sand. To the east, the brush gradually gave way to rolling grasslands, but the harvest tan grass was sparse, and in places the brownish red soil showed through. To the west were hills that rose no more than fifty to a hundred yards above the high road. A patchwork of reddish sand, brush, and junipers covered the slopes.

  The last Southern Guard way station had been two days earlier, manned by but a half squad, and Alucius had his scouts out not only on the eternastone road ahead but also on the few side roads. Another set of scouts paralleled the main road, riding through the scrub brush roughly half a vingt to each side. Not a single scout had seen anyone since they had broken camp that morning.

  "This is a trading road, isn't it?" Alucius asked Feran, riding beside him.

  "They say it is."

  "We haven't seen any traders or anyone at all. There were more people on the road from Salaan to Dereka."

  "You're saying that there's trouble ahead." Feran laughed. "We knew that already."

  "It's not just trouble, but the kind of trouble. Everywhere else where I've been around fighting, people move. Some flock in to make a quick coin, and some flee. Marshal Frynkel couldn't provide any information about this revolt. No one has found out anything since the first traders fled, and that was more than a season ago. Just how likely is that?"

  "Likely or not, honored Majer, that's the way it is."

  "Exactly. But it means we need to know more before we go charging into Hyalt." Alucius looked at the road ahead and the lancer scout who was headed back toward Alucius at close to a gallop.

  Alucius turned to his left, looking at Dhaget, one of his three courier/ messengers. "Send back word for all the companies to halt and have Captain Deotyr and Captain Jultyr join me."

  "Yes, sir."

  Alucius turned back toward Feran. "Have Fifth Company halt and take a break."

  "Fifth Company! Column halt!"

  "Company halt!" Egyl echoed Feran's command.

  Both officers waited until Waris reined up short of them.

  "Sir… there's a barricade ahead. It's a pile of stones and logs on both sides of the road, and a log set on a post so it can block the road. Troopers, or something like 'em, in maroon tunics."

  "Did they see you?" asked Alucius.

  "Don't think so, sir."

  "How far ahead?"

  "Three vingts, give or take a few hundred yards."

  "How many troopers were there?"

  "Looked to be a half squad or so. They had some merchant's wagon. Didn't see the merchant, though. Also had maybe ten mounts saddled and ready to go."

  Alucius frowned. "Call in the other scouts. Station them on the road a vingt to the south to stand watch for now. Then report back here."

  "Yes, sir."

  While Alucius waited for the other two officers to join them, he took out the map from the top of his left saddlebag and unfolded it, studying it and checking distances, looking up and comparing what the map showed to what he saw, as he had done periodically for the last several days.

  " Sir? " offered Jultyr, riding up and halting on the edge of the road beyond Feran.

  "There's a roadblock ahead. When Deotyr gets here, we'll go over the next steps."

  "Yes, sir." Jultyr nodded.

  Within moments, Deotyr reined up beside the other captain.

  Alucius lowered the map. "The scouts have reported a fortified roadblock about three vingts ahead, with half a squad of mounted armsmen. There's no way to tell yet if they're actually trained lancers. We could take this barricade, possibly without many casualties. But we'd still be more than twenty vingts from Hyalt, and they'd know that we were here. I'd rather they didn't know until we've learned more, and until we can make an attack with the advantage of surprise.

  "We're going to head back north for about five vingts. We passed a road, more like a trail, back there. It runs south between the hills just west of us and another line of higher hills farther west. We'll only take it far enough to find a good bivouac. Then, we'll start scouting in earnest. I'll tell you now, but you also need to make sure that the scouts know it. The Southern Guard lost a number of scouts here. So, at first, I don't want your men trying to get too close. I'd rather have sketchy information than none."

  Deotyr glanced to Jultyr, then back to Alucius.

  "You have a question, Captain Deotyr?"

  "Not exactly, sir. Ah… it's just… wouldn't they know the back roads?"

  "I'm certain that some of them do. But they're expecting any lancers to come straight down the road. The way the roadblock is set up, it's not a defense against a company of lancers. If there are any defenses, those defenses are farther south. The barricade is set up so that even if we did manage to capture everyone there, it would be obvious from a distance that it had been overrun. I'd rather not announce our presence over a roadblock and ten or twenty men."

  "Ah, yes, sir."

  "If you're right, Captain," Alucius went on, "and you well may be, we could run into larger forces on the back roads. Now… we know that they're somewhere and armed. Right now, do they know we're here?"

  "No, sir, probably not, sir."

  "Not yet, I hope," Alucius replied. "So, if we run into another force on the back roads, who has the advantage of surprise?"

  Deotyr nodded, if grudgingly.

  "If our scouts are good, we might even be able to set up an ambush for them." And if he and the companies were lucky, Alucius added to himself. "Twenty-eighth Company will take the lead on the way back to the side road, and I'll be riding with you. Overcaptain Feran and Fifth Company will ride rearguard, just in case we have been spotted. Once we find a defensible bivouac, we'll send out scouts, possibly for several days."

  Alucius's eyes went from officer to officer, ending with Deotyr. "Is that clear?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Then let's get moving." Alucius gestured to Waris, who had reined up a good five yards away. "Is there any sign of the rebels?"

  "No, sir. Everyone's where you ordered."

  "Have half of them hang back and watch the rear, and you and Elbard move up with us. We're going north, then west. After you tell the other two, you two join up with me, and I'll brief you on what we need."

  "Yes, sir." Waris eased his mount away.

  At least, the scouts weren't second-guessing him. Alucius kept a smile on his face as he turned the gray and rode back along the road with Captain Deotyr.

  Chapter 49

  Alustre, Lustrea

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  The slightly stocky, dark-haired traveler, flanked by two Praetorian guards, bowed to the man who sat in the unadorned silver chair on the dais. "Honored Praetor Tyren."

  "You provided most interesting materials, stranger."

  "Waleryn, Praetor. Lord Waleryn of Lanachrona."

  "Why are you here?"

  "Because my brother fears me, and a ruler who fears his brother is not one that it is wise to remain close beside."

  "And I should trust a man who would betray his brother? If indeed you
are that man."

  "I am not here to betray my brother. I am here because my brother does not trust me, and I would work with a ruler who can use what I know. That is far different from offering to betray a brother. That I do not offer. I offer the knowledge—"

  "And if I were to torture you for that? "

  "Sure as the week has ten days, you would lose what else I have to offer—freely." Waleryn laughed. "Almost freely."

  "Almost?"

  "I ask for good quarters and a modest stipend. Very modest. Less than the engineer received."

  "What engineer?"

  "The one who provided you and your sire with the light-knives. The light-knives whose secrets I also know."

  "Why should I do this?"

  "Because it is in your interest, Praetor, and because you lose nothing by seeing if I am who and what I claim."

  "Can you prove what you say?"

  "I can offer you more proof than you can believe." Waleryn smiled. "The engineer's spaces have not been touched. There is a Table-like mirror hidden within those spaces. I can find the mirror and call up a scene in that mirror." He paused. "Will that suffice?"

  "We shall see." The young Praetor nodded to the guards. "Take him to the entry of Vestor's work area. Then… let him guide us from there."

  In addition to the two guards flanking Waleryn, four others guarded the Praetor as the eight men walked from the audience hall to the second floor of the south wing of the Praetorian palace. They halted before an archway. One took a key and opened the door.

  Once he was released, Waleryn stepped forward, walking past the main workbench, then to the empty crystal tanks, where he eased around the last tank to the smaller workbench in the corner, tucked away out of sight—a bench slightly dusty and clearly unused for some time.

  Waleryn studied the small workbench for a moment, then slid back the green quartz surface to reveal a polished and silvered metal circle recessed beneath the oak that held the quartz top. "Here is the mirror of which I spoke."

  One of the guards stepped forward, then nodded to the Praetor, who stood well back of the crystal tanks.

  The Praetor moved past the tanks, but only far enough so that he could see the mirror. "Proceed."

  Waleryn took several deep breaths. After a time he concentrated, staring deeply into the ruby mists that appeared, tinged somehow with both purple and pink. Shortly, the mists cleared and revealed the audience hall in Tempre, where the Lord-Protector sat upon a white onyx throne, with a blue crystal glittering at the spire at the top of the back of the throne.

  "Another, if you will."

  Waleryn concentrated, this time bringing up an image of the audience hall they had so recently departed, where one of the remaining guards was talking to another.

  A smile crossed the Praetor's lips.

  The amber crystal set in a small metal fitting beside the mirror began to glow, and Waleryn stepped back. "That is all it will do for now."

  The image vanished, revealing once more just the metal, now slightly tarnished, as if by fire.

  "Why could you not see more?" asked the Praetor.

  "This mirror is not a Table," Waleryn explained. "Had the engineer made it of glass, already it would have shattered. For a Table to work, it must be linked within the earth, as is the one in Prosp."

  "Is? The building collapsed in the earthquake and destroyed that Table."

  Waleryn smiled.

  "You dispute that?"

  "The Table that he constructed in Prosp was buried by the collapse of the building, but it is untouched."

  "How could that be?" asked the Praetor.

  "The Tables are linked within the earth. So long as the links are not destroyed, a Table cannot be damaged." Waleryn smiled once more. "Why don't you send someone to Prosp to see? If you have not already. Or send me with them. Or come with us."

  Tyren frowned.

  "Would you not like to have the information that your sire had?" asked Waleryn. "To see what is happening throughout Lustrea without waiting days or weeks for dispatches? Knowing what did happen without having to trust others, when you do not know whom to trust? That is the beginning of what I provide. Just the beginning."

  "And you wish just a modest stipend?"

  "And the means to continue the engineer's work, so that you and all Lustrea may benefit." Waleryn bowed his head slightly. "And I, of course, if to a lesser extent."

  After a moment, Tyren nodded. "We will allow you those privileges, but you will be watched for a time. Closely watched. I trust you understand."

  Waleryn bowed again. "I do, honored Praetor. How could it be otherwise? "

  Chapter 50

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  In the late afternoon, Alucius studied the camp. Situated on a low hillcrest, it lay a good five vingts to the west of the high road—as an eagle flew—and about five vingts south of where the scouts had sighted the rebel roadblock. The northern slopes of the hill were more heavily wooded, but the mixed firs, cedars, and junipers grew out of steep and rocky broken ground that offered a slow, steep, and treacherous climb for a rider, and much of the lower ground held spiky thornbush. To the west was a long, sloping ridge, mostly open, and the east offered a bluff nearly fifteen yards above a narrow stream. To the south, the ground sloped more gradually toward the narrow road—dirt and barely wide enough for two men riding abreast.

  From the hillcrest, there was enough of a vista that the lookouts Alucius had ordered posted could see dust from the roads while riders were still several vingts away. On the ride from the high road, Alucius and the scouts had seen few tracks in the dusty road, and those had been of single riders and carts, not even large wagons. On their ride south and west, they had passed close to a score of long-abandoned steads set on the side of Kills that looked too arid to support much of anything.

  While the camp was being established, Alucius had dispatched Elbard and 'Waris to scout farther to the south and east. Even as far away as three to four vingts south, the two had found no sign of riders or posts, or much of anything, nor any sign of recent movement of lancers or large numbers of mounts. That bothered Alucius. Was he being too cautious? Should he have pressed farther south? Or was he missing something?

  It could just have been that the hilly land was too dry. Alucius doubted that the lancers could have foraged off the land, even had he wanted them to. The trees were mainly low junipers and twisted cedars, with largish patches of spiky thornbush, and the grass, although long in places, was already brown and sparse, certainly not enough for more than three hundred mounts for long.

  "Cookfires?" asked Feran from where he stood to the left of Alucius.

  "Small ones, but only if they can find dry wood that doesn't smoke much," Alucius replied. "If you'd pass that on to Deotyr and Jultyr."

  "I'll do that. I'd already said that was likely."

  "You ought to be the one in charge." Alucius smiled faintly. In many areas, Feran was well ahead of Alucius.

  "No, thank you. I'm fine on the day-to-day things. You're much better in battles and fights."

  Alucius had his doubts, but only replied, "Good thing we're both here." He lifted his eyes toward the south-southeast, in the direction of Hyalt, supposedly fifteen vingts away. He saw nothing but more of the same cedar- and juniper-covered hills. His Talent had revealed no one nearby except for those of his own force and few enough animals. Those were mainly grayjays and rodents of various kinds.

  "Rather neither one of us had to be," Feran grumbled. "Sir." He brushed back a lock of the graying brown hair.

  "I didn't exactly want to ride halfway across Corus, either. It's just that the alternatives were worse."

  "Why is it always that way?"

  "It's not," Alucius replied with a laugh. "It's just that way for us."

  "You are so cheerful, most honored Majer."

  "I know." Alucius's voice turned somber. "How many really good scouts do you have? Besides Elbard and Waris?"

  "One, maybe two."

 
; "Is there anyone from the other companies?"

  "Jultyr says that one of his shows promise. Was raised in the Vyan Hills. Father was a warden for some wealthy landowner. Son tracked poachers for a while."

  "No one else?"

  Feran laughed.

  "We'll do what we can, then. I'll want them all out early, well before dawn. We need a quick picture of what's out between five and ten vingts, not so much near the high road, but along the hills. There are bound to be steads closer to the main road, but we need to know what might be along the back route."

  "One thing that bothers me," Feran said slowly. "There's no one out here, but there are roads."

  "I don't know for certain," Alucius replied, "but you saw all those abandoned places."

  Feran nodded.

  "There used to be more people who lived out here. Like the north-lands, I'd wager it's gotten drier and drier until holders couldn't make it here. You also saw some of those hillsides, with all the stumps? They're still logging the land, and probably most of the roads out here are used for that."

  "You think so?"

  "I don't know what to think, but it makes sense. Whether I'm right is another question." Alucius could only hope he had reached the right conclusion, and not just about the deserted state of the hillside lands. Time—and the scouting reports—would tell that.

  Chapter 51

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  The scouts departed well before dawn, briefed as well as Alucius knew how, and he stood silently as they rode southward. Feran stood beside him. Alucius just watched, long after the four had disappeared into the predawn grayness.

  "You'd rather be scouting, wouldn't you?" asked Feran.

  "It's hard, just watching." Alucius glanced toward the east, but the sky had not brightened with the immediate welling of light that heralded sunrise. "Harder than I realized."

  "That's the problem of being in command. It's harder for you than for anyone else."

  Alucius suspected he knew what Feran was suggesting, but he wasn't sure he wanted to admit it. "Oh?"